The Other Child
by amy.ward.906
Summary: Alana McKenzie otherwise known as Laney, leaves what is left of her foster home just as Los Angeles decends into hell. Finding a group of people in the middle of battle and helping them, she finds what pieces to her past she has been looking for and so much more.
1. Enter into Hell

Another day of getting smacked around and another night spent trying to fall asleep and failing miserably. I mean where do Social Services get these foster parents? Do they just let any asshole sign a few forms and take a kid? I guess so because I had endured more hell than necessary these past few years. Ever since my parents died when I was 10, I was shuffled from one crappy home to another.

Man did I ever miss my mom and my dad. But my mom was dead. Apparently she committed suicide about 3 years ago. As for my dad, my social worker told me he was dead as well, but I didn't believe it. I knew he was still alive, I felt it. But my worker didn't want to listen. Hell, she just didn't care.

Anyway lately Los Angeles had been in a panic recently. Something big was happening, something big and bad, very bad. I don't mean like a mudslide or wild fires. Nothing natural disaster like, but something epic. Like apocalyptic. Plus these dreams I've been having lately have not eased my fears at all, dreams of my past.

"Laney, get your worthless ass out here right now!"

Crap, Jack was yelling for me again. Guess I better go see what he wants. Leaving my bedroom and walking down the hall to the living room, I saw him throwing some stuff into duffle bags.

"Yes sir?"

He looked at me (well glared at me is more like it) and said, "Get your shit together. We're getting the hell out of LA."

"Did Ms. Peterson say it was alright?" Ms. Peterson was my social worker.

"Who cares? She probably took off for the hills already."

This was it. I wasn't going with him. I'd finally had enough. So I did what I thought was right.

"No."

"What was that?"

"No," I told him. "I am not going with you."

"You really gonna stay here?"

"Try and stop me," I told him, gritting my teeth.

He came over and backhanded me, knocking me to the floor. "Fine, stay here and get yourself killed. See if I care." He grabbed the bags and stormed out. After the door slammed, I stood and went to the bathroom. Shit, the jerk had busted my lip. Figures, anyway as I went into my room and looked out the window, I noticed the sky getting dark and it was starting to rain as well. Hell, I was leaving this apartment. So I grabbed what little bit of clothing I had and grabbed the last bit of food from the cupboards, which mainly consisted of granola bars and some Chex Mix. I looked inside the fridge and grabbed a few bottles of water, some juice boxes and a few Mondo's. Stuffing the food in my backpack I headed for the front door. I tried to open it but it wasn't budging. That only meant either Jack had wedged the door shut when he left or someone else had thrown something in front of the door and blocked it.

Great, well at least I could take off down the fire escape. A few moments later after climbing down, which was not an easy task (the fire escape was pretty rickety) I started walking down the street. There wasn't very many people still around. Any sounds I could hear were nothing but screams, plus the rain pouring down, so I was soaking wet inside of five minutes. Passing by a few alleys I noticed some vampires feeding. Yes I do know about vampires, demons and all of that supernatural garbage, but more on that topic later.

Anyway after I had been walking for about half an hour, I came across some people fighting. A major fight from the looks of it, you know like in those action movies right at the big fight scenes before the end where the hero wins and all that. Now since I didn't feeling like being involved I ducked into an alley, after I made sure it was clear of vamps. I mean hello? I am not a complete idiot. Anyway peering around the corner watching these people fight, all of a sudden the air crackled around me, like static electricity and red lightning lit up the sky. YES RED LIGHTNING! I know freaky right? You ain't heard anything yet. Then a dragon flew down, just as the group of people had just finished their fight. As it landed, making the ground shake, these people turned around barely able to hold themselves upright. I guess their fight had taken its toll on their bodies. But as one of them turned around I gasped. I knew this man. He was in my dreams. I couldn't let him die. So I did something I knew I might regret, but at that moment I did not give a damn.

Adjusting my backpack and pushing my wet bangs out of my face, I went out in the middle of the road and grabbed two pieces of heavy bit of rubble lying nearby. Noticing one had a nail poking out of it, I walked up to the backside of the dragon and threw the bare rubble at it. Getting its attention, it turned its head in my direction.

"Hey sulfur breath," I said yelling at it. "Leave them alone." I then took the rubble with the nail in it and stuck the nail-covered side right in the dragon's rear end. It roared and disintegrated. Just then my legs gave out on me and I collapsed. I guess being in the pouring rain for so long wasn't such a good idea. As the group of people came over to me, I heard a couple of them speak.

"Is she okay? I mean damn, she doesn't look too good." _I'm soaking wet and I hurt all over. Of course I'm not okay._

"The human child does not seem well. She is injured."_ Give it up for the genius. Hey wait child, I'm not a child._

As one of the other people approached me, gently helping me to my feet, I looked at him and only one word came out of my mouth. "Liam." Then I passed out.


	2. Angel's Thoughts

_Angel's P.O.V._

Dead, Wesley was dead. That's what Illyria told us. He was gone. Lorne had left, not wanting to be involved any longer. I can't blame him, to be honest. He had gone through more than his fair share of hell. We'd destroyed his club at least twice, and since taking over Wolfram and Hart, he had already dealt with enough crap in the Entertainment Division. I mean he had his sleep removed just to deal with everything. The empath demon had gone through so much, since joining our group.

Anyway, LA has begun its descent into hell. At the moment we were fighting a group of demons and vampires. What kind of demons? I really don't know, or care for that matter. All I knew is that they were evil and wanting to kill us. So we fought, and fought hard at that. We were barely holding ourselves upright as we got rid of the last of them.

Then the air got really thick. It felt like it was crackling. The sky lit up with red lightning. A dragon…WAIT A DRAGON? Apparently so. It flew down and landed it front of us. It was then I knew I was going to die.

But all of a sudden, the dragon turned its attention in the opposite direction. A girl stood there, soaking wet with a murderous look on her face.

"Hey sulfur breath! Leave them alone!" She did something to anger it, and as it let out a sound of distress, Gunn swung a sword piercing the dragon and causing it to disintegrate. As it vanished, the girl collapsed.

The four of us headed in her direction. As we got closer, Gunn spoke, "Is she okay? I mean damn, she doesn't look too good." I agreed with him.

"The human child does not seem well. She is injured," Illyria said. She didn't look injured to me, just exhausted. As I slowly helped her up, she took one look at me and said, "Liam," before immediately losing consciousness. Why did she call me Liam?


	3. Entering The Hyperion

As we headed to find shelter taking the girl with us, the rain slowly tapered off. It was still dark when we decided to go back to the Hyperion, which was still standing to my surprise. As we went inside I set the girl down on a couch and set off to find the first aid kit and some blankets and clean clothes. Finding both I went to check on the group.

Spike was already healing and Gunn didn't look too worse for the wear as he lay in an armchair snoozing. Superficial wounds appeared here and there, along with a few bruises, but other than that…

As for Illyria she was crouched near the girl and seemed to be studying her. As I approached them both, Illyria took notice of me and grabbed the clothes and bandages I held. She saw the look on my face and stated, "I will need to clean her up."

"Blue's got a point there Peaches. If she woke up as you did that, she might freak out."

Spike was right, unfortunately. As Illyria went to work cleaning a scrape the girl had on her hand, she started to stir. As her eyes slowly opened, she sat up taking in her surroundings.

"Do not fear, human child. You are safe."

Illyria helped her to her feet, "Is there a room where she can get changed?" she said looking at me.

"Upstairs 3rd door on the left."

As the two of them went upstairs, I stood there wondering what was going on. Illyria stopped mid-step and said, "I may inhabit this shell now, but even a God as I, is not without compassion," as if answering my thoughts. Then her and the girl continued upstairs.


	4. Identity

After this lady and I walked upstairs, we entered a room. As she shut the door, she pointed out the bathroom, ushering me inside to get changed which I did quickly, drying off my skin and hair as not to get sick. As I opened the bathroom door, she motioned for me to sit on the bed so she could take care of my wounds. Getting sick of the silence, I decided to break it.

"What did you mean?"

She looked at me quizzically, not understanding my question.

"On the stairs, you said you were in a shell and a God. I was just wondering what you meant."

She hesitated.

"Sorry, if you don't wanna talk about it…

"This shell does not belong to me. I am a God…or was at one point. Then my essence was imprisoned, until several months ago. I was released into this shell, which was known as Fred. Winifred Burkle, her identity was. I eventually took over, killing her in the process. Now I inhabit her shell, her body."

"The people downstairs, they knew her."

"Yes."

Silence then resumed again, but this time she spoke.

"What did you mean?" she asked, voicing my question, while making it her own.

"About…

"You called him Liam."

"I've seen him before…in my dreams."

"That is not his name."

"Then what is it?"

"Angel."

"Oh."

"Do you know him?"

"I thought I did…I think I do, but if his name is Angel, then he's probably not the person I am looking for."

"Ask."

It was such a simple word, a simple idea. It was an idea that might just work.

As we left the room…

"Illyria," she spoke voicing her name.

"Alana McKenzie. Call me Laney."


	5. Conversations

**Disclaimer: I do not own Angel (wish I did).**

**A/N: Okay here is some more Angel goodness for you. Sorry it's taking me so long to post but life has been crazy. I am sure you faithful readers know what that is like. I have been on vacation for the past week and during that week I created some more of this amazing story, so I hope you enjoy. As always Read It, Love It, and Review It! **

**A/N: Be warned, slight cursing ahead, as well as saying African American. I didn't want to say black and risk sounding racist, which I am not. So please do not be offended. On with the show!**

As Illyria and I went back downstairs, I could see everyone staring at me. It was disturbing. "You okay now girl?" an African American man asked.

"Yeah just a little scraped up, but otherwise fine."

"Peaches here was pretty worried about you Pet," a blonde man said.

"Huh?"

"Peaches is what he calls Angel. I believe it is a nickname?" Illyria explained.

"More like a word he uses to annoy the hell out of me," Angel said.

"Oh lighten up Sire-

"Zip it Spike," Angel said, glaring at him. Spike became silent.

Angel walked towards me. Grabbing my upper arms he said, "What were you thinking? Do you know how dangerous what you did was?"

I stood there in shock for a moment before I retorted back by saying, "And here I thought pissing off a dragon was a daily occurrence in Hell A…" After wrenching myself from his grip I continued with… "Of course I knew it was stupid, but I couldn't let you die. I couldn't lose you again."

Angel stood there with a quizzical look. "What do you mean again?"

"Never mind, you're not him."

"Not who?"

"Liam."

"I haven't been Liam for over 200 years. How could you know me as Liam?"

"Well she's not a demon or a vampire," Spike said, butting into the conversation.

"So how-

"You don't remember, do you?" I interrupted Angel.

"Remember…

"Me, you and Mom."

"Who's your mother?"

"It doesn't matter, she's dead."

"I'm sorry. When-

"3 years ago, suicide."

"Bloody hell, the bitch!" Spike shouted putting the clues together.

Recognition shone in Angel's eyes, as he realized it as well. "Darla, but that's impossible. Unless you're-

"Already told you, I'm not a demon or a vamp."

"Then how-

"The Wipeout."


	6. War

**A/N: Okay, here's the thing. Since I don't feel like posting a disclaimer separately I will only say this once. I do now own Angel. Also I apologize for any historical inaccuracies. **

"What was the Wipeout?"

Figures, I was going to have to explain this out loud. It was bad enough to still dream it but…

"The Wipeout happened in 1863 in Europe."

"That doesn't answer my question."

I huffed. "Fine." Then I started to explain…

_Flashback…_

**I was 10 years of age. It was late and we had just finished eating almost 2 hours ago. The sun had set and I had snuck into the stables to see me Da. But upon entering, I did not see him. Where was he? He was supposed to be brushing down Blaze. Blaze was my horse, well sort of. Blaze was really Papa's horse. He was a beautiful chestnut Arabian. When Papa let me ride him I felt like a princess. Since I couldn't see me Da, I went over to see Blaze in his stall. Getting my stepstool and standing on it, I started talking to Blaze. **

"**Hello Blaze, where's Father?" Blaze just snorted. "Why Blaze! Such language," I said giggling. "Can you tell me where he is if I give you this?" I pulled out a few carrots from dinner. He whinnied and pawed the ground with his hoof. "That's better," I said, feeding him the carrots. "So where is he?"**

"**Right here," a voice said in my ear. Arms wrapped around my waist, picking me up. I squealed, laughing as I said, "Papa, put me down!" **

**He set me down on my feet. Looking at me he said, "What are you doing lass? Should you not be getting ready for bed?"**

**Pouting slightly, I looked in his eyes and said, "I wanted to see you."**

"**Well let's get inside before your mother takes a switch to us both." He and I headed inside, playfully swatting my rear as we did. A little while later as Mother was brushing my hair she asked, "What's wrong my darling girl?"**

**I looked at her with soulful eyes before saying, "Something's wrong, something bad is going to happen tonight."**

"**Baby-**

"**Mum can I sleep with you and Da tonight, please?" I begged, my voice wavering. **

**She took one look at me and said, "Only if your father agrees." **

**I headed to their room. As I entered, he looked at me, and Mother who had entered behind me, before asking, "What's the matter?"**

"**Can I sleep in here?"**

"**Bit big for this lass, aren't ye?"**

"**She's afraid of something tonight Liam," Mum said, with a look of conviction on her face. Father couldn't refuse, so he nodded and I climbed in between him and Mother. He murmured an old Irish Lullaby which lulled me to sleep in an instant.**

**But not even an hour later, there was a loud banging on the door. Father was the first to awaken and as he answered, he wasn't too thrilled with the person on the other side. As I awoke, I heard arguing and went out into the front room. I saw Father arguing with a man, something about leaving and time. **

"**Da, what is the matter?" I said, coming to stand beside him. He put his arm around me, as the man he was arguing with came closer. **

"**What a beautiful child you have there. Tell me girl, what is thy name?"**

"**Alana McKenzie sir," I said, almost in a whisper. This was it. The moment I had dreaded. It was wrong. This man felt wrong.**

"**Sweetling, go and get your mother." **

**I didn't want to, but I obeyed. A few minutes later, as we left the house in a carriage, I felt it would be a while before everything was right again.**

_End of Flashback…_

**(A/N: sorry for the long flashback history)**

"So we were driven to a facility or something and separated. Then I was cryogenically frozen, I guess you could say, and when I woke up, they said you and Mom were dead. Turns out Mom was alive and you just don't remember."

"Was it just the three of you?" Spike asked.

"No there were a few other vamps and a lot of demons. They covered up everyone's disappearance by saying something about a polio outbreak."

"So you're my daughter?"

"Yeah."

We just looked at each other for what seemed like the longest time. Until the door opened and someone broke the silence.

"Dad!"

**A/N: Okay another note here. I am evil, I know. Leaving it at a cliffhanger. But I deemed it necessary. Anyway, guess who yelled Dad. Please guess. Review on who you think it is. Also if you guess correctly, I will let you decided how the mystery person reacts to some startling news. **


	7. Siblings

**A/N: Okay, no one tried to guess who yelled Dad, but it seems that was obvious. Anyway the story is just about wrapped up, just a couple of more chapters.**

"Dad," Connor yelled as he burst through the doors of the Hyperion.

"Connor, what are you doing here? I thought I told you to get out of LA."

"I couldn't go with them," Connor said, referring to his fake family.

"So…"

"Can I stay here?" he asked Angel.

"Sure Connor."

"Who's this?" Laney asked Angel.

"Um…" Angel wasn't sure how to tell Connor about his sister.

"This is your blood relation, vampire child."

"Uh Dad, what's Illyria talking about?"

"Blue here is saying you ain't a Miracle Child, Junior." Spike told Connor.

"How is she my sister?"

"Angel please tell me your son knows about sex ed." Gunn said.

"Yeah I do."

'_Thank god…wait, what?'_ Angel thought having a slight panic attack, but Connor's voice brought him out of his thoughts.

"What I meant was, I thought Darla just had me."

"She did…sort of. See Alana here is from my Angelus days, back in the 1800s."

"So pre-soul?" asked Connor.

"Yeah," Angel said, confirming it.

"Look," said Laney. "I'm obviously intruding. I better go," she said getting ready to leave. She finally found her dad, but she didn't want to destroy what he had now.

"You don't have to go," Connor said.

"It's okay."

"No-

"Really, it's fine. I didn't mean to disrupt whatever you have here." She said trying to leave, but Angel stopped her.

"No," he said. "You are not going anywhere. You are staying here with your family."

Laney shook her head, her eyes welling up with tears. "You don't even remember me."

"Let me try," he said pulling her into a hug.

During the touching moment, everyone except Connor slowly left the lobby to find livable rooms in the hotel for the night. As father and daughter broke apart, Connor took his sister into his arms, hugging her as well.

"You have her eyes," he said, referring to Darla, as he let her go. The family went upstairs to sleep before facing a new chapter in their lives.


	8. Epilogue

_1 year later…_

In the following year since Laney had come to live with her dysfunctional family, life was close to perfect. Money was rolling in thanks to Laney's idea of turning the hotel into a shelter/job center, as well as reopening the detective agency. Donations and funds were plentiful. Not to mention Angel finally got his redemption, his Shanshu.

As Angel, Connor and Laney went to the beach that day and played in the waves, Laney knew she had finally completed the puzzle of her past. She had found the missing pieces and the picture she saw was her family. She liked it.

**THE END!**


End file.
